Expect a better WSL season from Brighton Women in 2023-24

Brighton start their 2023-24 WSL season on Sunday 1st October with a trip to Everton. It represents the opportunity for a fresh beginning after a somewhat chaotic 2022-23 campaign.

With the exception of the close-run FA Cup semi final with Manchester United, last season was in truth a disappointment.

The short of it was the Albion rattled through four managers, dropped four places in the table and arguably only avoided the one relegation spot because Reading totally collapsed.

The long of it can be read in our WAB analysis – What happened to Brighton Women in a turbulent 2022-23 season.

There are several reasons to look forward to the new campaign with optimism that Brighton are about to move forwards again.

Hopefully come May, the travails of 2022-23 will be seen as merely a blip in the road towards Tony Bloom’s stated aim of the Albion Women becoming a top four WSL side.

Melissa Phillips
Head coach Phillips joined Brighton in April from US club Angel City. With a full pre-season to implement her ideas, she has confirmed her expectation is for the Albion to look up the league rather than her objective after arriving which was simply to survive.

“The ambition is very clear, I think that’s what brought me into the club and what brought a lot of the key signings this summer is that we want to be a top-four club.”

“That’s the ambition. We understand that you don’t go from the bottom of the mountain to the top in one step, so this is phase one, being much more competitive in the league.”

“Of course, I’ll have to get them organised on the pitch. When you look at the goals scored and conceded last year, we were amongst the top in terms of expected goals and conversion rate, but we conceded 63 goals.”

“It’s about making sure on both sides of the ball we become a bit better, so that we’re limiting opposition chances and we’re also a bit more resolute out of possession.”

New players
Brighton have reacted to the disappointment of last season by bringing in an entire new team, making 11 signings. Most promisingly, 10 of these have won a league title with their previous clubs.

Inevitably with the far lower transfer fees in women’s football, the model so successfully pursued by the men of buying younger players at low cost, developing them and in many cases selling at a significant profit is not so applicable in the WSL.

As the table below shows, Brighton have instead largely pursued a policy of buying experienced players with a significant track record. The average age of the new signings is 27.

Two of the arrivals are Champions League winners. Pauline Bremer won the competition with Lyon and reached the final last season with Wolfsburg. Vicky Losada meanwhile was crowned a European champion during her time at Barcelona.

Most are full internationals, including Tatiana Pinto with 100 caps for Portugal. Jorelyn Carabali was one of the stars of the Columbia side who were unlucky to exit the World Cup at the quarter final stage to England.

Pre-season
Combining the 11 new players with the likes of Lioness Katie Robinson, Elisabeth Terland, Poppy Pattinson and Emma Kulberg, the team will justifiably look for a mid-table finish rather than another battle with relegation.

Expectation has only increased with an impressive pre-season. The Albion have claimed wins against Sporting Huelva and Seville and a draw against Tottenham Hotspur.

Back to the Amex
Brighton played only once at the Amex last season, defeating Reading 2-1 in September. The Albion did not host any of the big clubs there, when games with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City would in likelihood have drawn bigger crowds.

Paul Barber spoke about the lack of games towards the end of last season, saying: “Why can’t we use the Amex for every game? Well, the issue there is cost.”

“There is a theory we build and they will come. Unfortunately with the women’s game, internationals and Euros aside, we haven’t yet got that level of demand that gives us a good enough reason to open the Amex for every game.”

“I would love to see a 10 to 15,000 attendance for our women’s game and then I’d open the main stadium at the Amex all the time because then we would be able to justify it.”

The welcome news is that the club have confirmed the home game with Spurs on Sunday 15th October will be played at the Amex.

Although not a glamour tie on a par with Arsenal, Chelsea, United or City and all their Lionesses, the hope must be that Brighton fans deliver an attendance which brings closer the time when all games can be played at the Amex.

The Future
WSL chair Dawn Airey has outlined the expectation of making the WSL the first billion pound women’s football league in the world within the next decade.

“The whole of women’s sport globally generates a billion dollars in revenues from sponsorship and gates, a billion dollars in revenue globally. Men’s sport gets half a trillion.”

“That’s an enormous difference and it shows the enormous potential for women’s sport, and women’s football in particular.”

“The billion dollars isn’t a figure we just plucked from the air, it is based on a pretty decent and detailed business plan over the course of the next 10 years.”

“We look at the growth of attendances, we look at the growth of engagement and broadcast, we look at the increased interest in sponsorship and marketing opportunities.”

The WSL has previously been dominated by a ‘Big Three’ of Chelsea, Arsenal and City. United have now made it a ‘Big Four’ after finishing runners up last season.

Liverpool and Spurs have invested significantly in their women’s sides because of the potential of the WSL, as have Newcastle United.

The Magpies turned full time this summer, becoming the first ever fully professional club in the third tier. They want two quick fire-promotions to reach the WSL.

Competition is already fierce for Brighton in terms of that stated aim of breaking into the top four. It will only become tougher as more clubs invest further in their women’s team.

But the Albion’s new signings do give cause for optimism that Brighton will be looking at a mid table finish this season.

On occasions, they should even have the ability to start troubling the current ‘Big Four.’ Everything looks set for be an exciting year ahead.

Peter Finn